Postage metering systems are well known in the art. A typical postage meter stores and dispenses postage. Historically, postage meters have been mechanical and electromechanical devices that maintain through mechanical or “electronic” registers an account of all postage printed and the remaining balance of postage available for printing. Evidence that postage has been dispensed is most often in the form of a postal indicium that is printed on an envelope or other mail piece. As is well known, postage meters include an ascending register, that stores a running total of all postage dispensed by the meter, and a descending register that holds the remaining amount of postage credited to the meter. The descending register is reduced by the amount of postage dispensed during a transaction. The postage meter generally also includes a control sum register that provides a check upon the descending and ascending registers. The control sum register has a running account of the total funds having been added into the meter. The control sum register must always correspond with the summed readings of the ascending and descending registers. Thus, the control sum register is the total amount of postage ever put into the meter and it is alterable only when adding funds to the meter. In this manner, by inspecting the various registers and securing them from tampering, the dispensing of postal funds may be accurately recorded, tracked and accounted for.
It is typical of postal authorities, such as the United States Postal Service (USPS), to promulgate rules governing the placement, installation, registration and tracking of postage meters by postage meter manufacturers with customers. For example, postal funds records for each postage meter may be maintained by the regional post offices wherein the postage meters are physically located. As such, the postage meter is typically registered (licensed) to a particular user at a specified location and assigned to a regional post office corresponding to the specified location. As another example, the postage meter is typically provided with the ability to print a geographic location indicator, such as a ZIP Code, as part of the postal indicium. In the United States, this geographic location indicator is part of the “town circle” information contained with the postal indicium and corresponds to the ZIP code of the regional post office where the postage meter is installed. Generally, postal authority rules require that the mail pieces be delivered to the corresponding regional post office. Thus, if a regional post office begins to receive a large volume of mail containing an incorrect geographic location indicator, then it may be an indication that the user or manufacturer has moved the postage meter from one location to another location. This necessitates an updating of the records that are kept by the postal authority and modification of the postage metering system by the manufacturer to update the geographic origin indicator.
As is well understood in the art, postage meters will not dispense postage unless sufficient funds or authorization exists in the accounting registers described above. Thus, the postage meters eventually run out of stored postage value such that the postage meter is disabled from printing postage until additional postage value or authorization (in a post-payment system) is added to the postage meter. Remote meter resetting systems have been developed which provide the capability of having postage added to these postage meters without requiring the postage meter to be physically brought into the post office. Examples of such conventional remote postage meter resetting systems are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,447,890 and 4,097,923. Typically, remote postage meter resetting is accomplished by obtaining authorization codes from a data center via telephone which are in turn used by the postage meter to adjust the accounting registers accordingly. In older postage metering systems an operator calls the data center and manually enters the authorization codes into the postage meter. In new systems, the postage meter is placed directly into communication with the data center via modem and common telephone lines or some other suitable communication network.
To confirm compliance with various postal authority regulations like those described above, the postage metering systems must also be periodically inspected. In older postage metering systems, a customer service representative was often dispatched to the customer's location to perform the inspection. This may entail confirming that the postage metering system is at the anticipated address, inspecting the accounting register readings and reviewing the general operation and condition of the postage metering system. More recently, newer systems allow much, if not all, of this activity to be performed remotely by placing the postage meter into communication with the data center. Examples of such conventional remote inspections are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,799,093 and 6,038,690.
Another reason why postage meter manufacturers communicate remotely with postage metering systems is to effect upgrades and/or changes to the postage metering systems. Thus, downloading of new software and enabling dormant/optional features are just some of the tasks that may be executed remotely by placing the postage metering system into communication with the data center. Examples of such techniques are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,778,348 and 5,737,426. Accordingly, these techniques may be employed to update town circle information and make other changes associated with relocation of a postage meter from one facility to another facility.
Even with all of the potential uses for the remote communications described above, some customers have been reluctant to accept the increased costs associated with embedding this communication capability into the postage metering system. One reason may be that they perceive that they are paying for something that not only benefits themselves, but also largely benefits the postal authority and the meter manufacturer. As examples, the postal authority benefits by increased security and reduced costs due to the remote inspections while the manufacturer benefits by reduced costs since those instances in which a service representative must be dispatched are reduced. Another reason that some customers may be slow to accept the embedded communication capability is that it may not be frequently utilized. As examples, the customer may only need to reset the postage metering system (download postal funds) once or twice a month while inspections are conducted annually. Similarly, it is not anticipated that software upgrades would be required on a frequent basis. Therefore, the embedded communication capability remains dormant much of the time.
Similarly, since a postage metering system has traditionally been a dedicated device, its utility in the mail room or office has been limited to postage metering activities. Although the postage metering system is a computer based system that typically also incorporates digital printing (laser, ink jet, thermal transfer, or other dot matrix printing technology), the system is not based on standard components, such as: a personal computer, off the shelf operating system and software, and general purpose office printer. Thus, the proprietary nature of the postage metering system has provided no utility for the customer beyond the postage metering environment. As a result, for those customers that do not have a lot of mail volume, the postage metering system remains idle for long periods of time.
As a result of the above, in environments where customers are scrutinizing their capital expenditures and desk/office space is at a premium, the justification for obtaining a postage metering system is increasingly challenged.
Therefore, there is a need for a postage metering system that provides increased functionality for the customer while taking advantage of the already existing components of the postage metering system. In this way, the new functionality may be brought to the customer without having to conduct a substantial redesign of the postage metering system by the manufacturer or pass significant extra cost on to the customer.